November 15

Historic Events

2022

The world population reached eight billion. ›

2020

Lewis Hamilton wins the Turkish Grand Prix and secures his seventh drivers' title, equalling the all-time record held by Michael Schumacher. ›

2017

A flood a few miles outside of Athens results in the death of 25 people. ›

2016

Hong Kong's High Court bans elected politicians Yau Wai-ching and Baggio Leung from the city's Parliament. ›

2012

Xi Jinping becomes General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and a new seven-member Politburo Standing Committee is inaugurated. ›

2010

A fire in a high-rise apartment building in Shanghai, China kills 58 people. ›

2007

Cyclone Sidr hits Bangladesh, killing an estimated 5,000 people and destroying parts of the world's largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans. ›

2006

Al Jazeera English launches worldwide. ›

2003

The first day of the 2003 Istanbul bombings, in which two car bombs, targeting two synagogues, explode, kill 25 people and wound 300 more. ›

2002

Hu Jintao becomes General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and a new nine-member Politburo Standing Committee is inaugurated. ›

2001

Microsoft launches the Xbox game console in North America. ›

2000

A chartered Antonov An-24 crashes after takeoff from Luanda, Angola, killing more than 40 people. ›

2000

Jharkhand officially becomes the 28th state of India, formed from eighteen districts of southern Bihar. ›

1994

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake hits the central Philippine island of Mindoro, killing 78 people, injuring 430 and triggering a tsunami up to 8.5 m (28 ft) high. ›

1990

The Communist People's Republic of Bulgaria is disestablished and a new republican government is instituted. ›

1990

Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-38, a classified mission for the Department of Defense. ›

1988

In the Soviet Union, the uncrewed Shuttle Buran makes its only space flight. ›

1988

Israeli–Palestinian conflict: An independent State of Palestine is proclaimed by the Palestinian National Council. ›

1988

The first Fairtrade label, Max Havelaar, is launched in the Netherlands. ›

1987

In Brașov, Romania, workers rebel against the communist regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu. ›

1987

Continental Airlines Flight 1713 crashes during takeoff from Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado, killing 25. ›

1985

A research assistant is injured when a package from the Unabomber addressed to a University of Michigan professor explodes. ›

1985

The Anglo-Irish Agreement is signed at Hillsborough Castle by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald. ›

1983

Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus declares independence; it is only recognized by Turkey. ›

1979

A package from Unabomber Ted Kaczynski begins smoking in the cargo hold of a flight from Chicago to Washington, D.C., forcing the plane to make an emergency landing. ›

1978

A chartered Douglas DC-8 crashes near Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing 183. ›

1976

René Lévesque and the Parti Québécois take power to become the first Quebec government of the 20th century clearly in favor of independence. ›

1971

Intel releases the world's first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004. ›

1969

Cold War: The Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS Gato in the Barents Sea. ›

1969

Vietnam War: In Washington, D.C., 250,000–500,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the war, including a symbolic "March Against Death". ›

1968

The Cleveland Transit System becomes the first transit system in the western hemisphere to provide direct rapid transit service from a city's downtown to its major airport. ›

1967

The only fatality of the North American X-15 program occurs during the 191st flight when Air Force test pilot Michael J. Adams loses control of his aircraft which is destroyed mid-air over the Mojave Desert. ›

1966

Project Gemini: Gemini 12 completes the program's final mission, when it splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean. ›

1965

Craig Breedlove sets a land speed record of 600.601 mph (966.574 km/h) in his car, the Spirit of America, at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. ›

1959

Four members of the Clutter family are murdered near Holcomb, Kansas, by Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, a crime later detailed by Truman Capote in his 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood. ›

1957

Short Solent 3 crashes near Chessell. ›

1955

The first part of the Saint Petersburg Metro is opened. ›

1951

Nikos Beloyannis, along with 11 comrades, is sentenced to death for attempting to reestablish the Communist Party of Greece. ›

1943

The Holocaust: German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies are to be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps". ›

1942

World War II: The Battle of Guadalcanal ends in a decisive Allied victory. ›

1938

Nazi Germany bans Jewish children from public schools in the aftermath of Kristallnacht. ›

1933

Thailand holds its first election. ›

1928

The RNLI lifeboat Mary Stanford capsizes in Rye Harbour with the loss of the entire 17-man crew. ›

1922

At least 300 are massacred during a general strike in Guayaquil, Ecuador. ›

1920

The first assembly of the League of Nations is held in Geneva, Switzerland. ›

1920

The Free City of Danzig is established. ›

1917

Eduskunta declares itself the supreme state power of Finland, prompting its declaration of independence and secession from Russia. ›

1899

Second Boer War: Battle of Chieveley, a British armored train is ambushed and partially derailed. British lose the battle, with 80 soldiers captured, along with war correspondent Winston Churchill. ›

1889

Brazil is declared a republic by Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca as Emperor Pedro II is deposed in a military coup. ›

1884

The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 met on 15 November 1884, and after an adjournment concluded on 26 February 1885, with the signature of a General Act, regulating the European colonisation and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period. ›

1864

American Civil War: Union General William Tecumseh Sherman begins his March to the Sea through Georgia towards the city of Savannah. ›

1849

Boilers of the steamboat Louisiana explode as she pulls back from the dock in New Orleans, killing more than 150 people. ›

1842

A slave revolt in the Cherokee Nation commences. ›

1806

Pike Expedition: Lieutenant Zebulon Pike spots a mountain peak while near the Colorado foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It is later named Pikes Peak in his honor. ›

1777

American Revolutionary War: After 16 months of debate the Continental Congress approves the Articles of Confederation. ›

1760

The secondly-built Castellania in Valletta is officially inaugurated with the blessing of the interior Chapel of Sorrows. ›

1705

Rákóczi's War of Independence: The Habsburg Empire and Denmark win a military victory over the Kurucs from Hungary in the Battle of Zsibó. ›

1533

Francisco Pizarro arrives in Cuzco, the capital of the Inca Empire. ›

1532

Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire: Commanded by Francisco Pizarro, Spanish conquistadors under Hernando de Soto meet Incan Emperor Atahualpa for the first time outside Cajamarca, arranging for a meeting in the city plaza the following day. ›

1315

Growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy: The Schweizer Eidgenossenschaft ambushes the army of Leopold I in the Battle of Morgarten. ›

655

Battle of the Winwaed: Penda of Mercia is defeated by Oswiu of Northumbria. ›